[NEohioPAL] Review of "33 Variations" at Beck Center for the Arts

[Bob Abelman]

Beck Center offers a fine rendition of a flawed '33 Variations' 

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Morning Journal, Chagrin Valley Times, 

Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 10/18/13

 

 

In the early 1800s, a music publisher named Anton Diabelli wrote a 32 bar, 45 second waltz and invited the leading composers in Vienna, including Ludwig van Beethoven, to create a variation on its theme. The collective work would be published in a single volume.

 

Everyone accepted except Beethoven, who considered Diabelli's waltz "a cobbler's patch" - too ordinary, clumsy and repetitive to warrant his attention.  For what appears to be financial reasons, Beethoven changed his mind.  But for reasons unknown, he eventually became obsessed with the waltz and wrote 33 variations over a three-year period.

 

Uncovering the mystery of Beethoven's obsession is the focus of Moisés Kaufman's play "33 Variations," which opened on Broadway in 2009 and is currently on stage at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. 

 

In it, we see the singularly driven Beethoven (an absolutely engaging Dana Hart) fighting deafness and disease to wring out every possible reimagining of the original waltz.  We witness his assistant Anton Schindler (played with immense sensitivity and humor by Trey Gilpin) catering to his every need and negotiating for more money and time with Diabelli (a delightful, playful Brian Pedaci).  

 

All the while, pianist Stuart Raleigh is center stage playing the music in Beethoven's head so we can hear pieces of variations in development.  In one thoroughly riveting scene, Hart as Beethoven joins forces with this piano - coaxing notes from its keys, feeling the vibrations on its strings, and stroking the curved woodwork like a lover - in a concerted effort to make perfect, timeless, life-altering music.

 

Like Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus," which dramatizes the lives of composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, "33 Variations" allows us to live with a legend, share his thoughts and creative process, and witness first-hand his immense genius.  

 

But like Beethoven, Kaufman could not leave well enough alone. He provides in his play variations on the themes of the personal cost of perfectionism as well as the mercilessness of time and illness.  And, like Diabelli's second-rate waltz, "33 Variations" lapses into a second-rate drama.  

 

The play, written in 33 scenes, jumps back and forth from the 1800s to modern times, where musicologist Katherine Brandt (a spirited and superb Maryann Nagel) is busy uncovering the mystery of Beethoven's 33 variations.  Her passion and obsession rivals that of the composer's. 

 

Despite her affliction with progressive Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is as debilitating and fatal as Beethoven's ailments, she goes to Germany to reference Beethoven's sketchbooks with the assistance of archives curator Clara Brandt (Mary Alice Beck, whose transition from an officious German bureaucrat to a best friend is wonderful).

 

Katherine travels despite the concerns of her nurse (a very authentic Mike Clark) and her daughter (an excellent Debbie Keppler), whose struggle to decide on a career is supposed to serve as the equivalent of Diabelli's defining mediocrity.

 

Sadly, the play's attempts to find and dramatize parallels between Beethoven's past and Katherine's present are so contrived that they lack theatrical flair.  

 

Efforts to be clever, such as when the worlds of Beethoven and Katherine overlap and its occupants actually acknowledge one another, are so transparent that they call attention to their own pretense and are ineffective.

 

As Katherine's ALS progresses, so too does the play's metamorphosis from dramatic storytelling to public service announcement.

 

To his credit, Kaufman's script makes musicology accessible.  And when his dialogue relies on historical documents for its substance it is crisp and intriguing.  He did the same in his plays "Gross Indecency, which tells the story of Oscar Wilde through court transcripts, and "The Laramie Project," which uses words from actual interviews to chronicle the murder of Matthew Shepard.  

 

When Kaufman attempts to create original dialogue, the play loses momentum and much of its charm.  

 

Director Sarah May, her wonderful cast, and projected images by Ian Hinz do what they can to keep this work interesting and flowing at all times.  The production's simple staging in the intimate confines of Beck Center's Studio Theater - courtesy of Trad A Burns (scenic and lighting design), Richard B. Ingraham (sound design) and Angelina Herin (costume design) - most certainly helps.

 

But this production cannot escape its source material and is a bit of a cobbler's patch itself.

 

"33 Variations" continues through November 17 at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood.  Tickets, which range from $10 to $29, can be purchased by calling 216-521-2540 or visiting www.beckcenter.org.
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